Art Tutorials for Homeschoolers

I’m going to be honest with you all and tell you that art is one area that I absolutely STINK at being consistent with. Assuming that you count the token one or two projects a year as consistency. Yes, we talk about art, admire the pictures and artists, but as far as pulling out all the supplies {or purchasing them}, I tend to shy away from it.

Problem is, I have a daughter who absolutely adores art.

Fortunately, our co-op that has an amazing art teacher and for half of the year Laurianna receives some fabulous instruction from a teacher who WILL break out the art supplies. {grins}

Birds nest chalk pastel tutorial

BUT ~ I’m going to step out of my comfort zone here and dive into unchartered territory soon. I ordered soft chalk pastels and plan to have some fun with the kids observing the birds at our feeder and drawing them together.

Queen Anne’s lace chalk pastel tutorial

Tricia from Hodgepodge has a collection of free chalk pastel tutorials and acrylic paint tutorials that we are going to dive into. Her mom has been sharing these tutorials on the site and I know that our kids are going to love the lessons. 

Chickadee chalk pastel tutorial

Is art one of your weaknesses too? Be sure to check out the free art lessons at Hodgepodge…and join in the art fun too. :) I may even start sharing a few of our creations here to keep myself accountable!

 

Visit these great companies!

• Grapevine Studies ~ stick figure your way through the Bible
• Time 4 Learning ~ online education for PreK to 8th grade

 

Drawing For Fun

Our kids love to draw…as is evidenced by the many reams of paper that have been flying through our house over the last few months. Pencils, crayons and more are scattered everywhere. All.the.time.

One site that we’ve been visiting and having a lot of fun with lately has been Draw With Rich ~ a blog by the Pick and Draw game creator Rich Davis. We love his drawing game and Rich has some great blog posts showing step-by-step instructions on how to draw other things…like doodlebugs.

Here are some of the great tips he has on his blog:

• drawing basics
• shading in drawings
• more shading examples
• line angles {drawing chins}
• drawing cartoon characters
• drawing a bird
• Doodlebugs…they’ll be all over your house!!

I subscribed to his site by email so that I get updates on his fun tutorials. Be sure to read his post on why October 25th is a special day for him ~ God is so good!!

Homeschool Village ~ Heart for the Arts

This weeks topic at the Homeschool Village: A Heart for the Arts. Post a picture of your homeschooler enjoying art and what you are planning on teaching!

Until about 2 days ago, I wasn’t certain exactly what we were going to do for art {other than arts & crafts, rice & beans projects}. Cindy from Along the Way let me borrow one of her books {which I promptly spilled coffee on and hence committed myself to using that book for our art time this coming year…Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl.

Ok, I kid {somewhat}. The books is actually what I was looking for ~ art activities for kids based on famous artist along with a brief bio on each artist. We’re going to get together with Cindy and her kids twice a month and learn about a different artist and try our hand at some different art techniques.

Other than painting and drawing, we love to see plays from time to time {depending on what is available and how much they are!}. Flat Stanley has been one of our favorite plays so far! Stanley got flattened by the big ol’ bulletin board below.

 

And as far as music goes…this past spring, both girls took piano lessons and also had their first recital! Practicing was hard for McKenna, but she wrote her own song to play for the recital too ~ it was cute!

What do you as a family enjoy doing for art and fine arts? Leave a comment and be sure to visit Homeschool Village and see what other moms are sharing about this topic!

Preschool Corner ~ Carousel Art Supply Organizer

This week I’ve been putting together new furniture, putting the finishing touches on our revised workbox system, and making some fun little additions to our ‘classroom’ {i.e. our dining room}. Some of the fun put me a little out of my comfort zone.

I’ll be the first to admit that I start twitching whenever the kids start talking about getting the art supplies out. As in, I don’t like messes. At least in my own house. If you’d like to invite us over to do a project at your house, I’d be happy to dig in…{grins}. Kaleb tends to be a little artist…but not in places I would like to actually see art. Walls, rugs, himself. Generally markers stay out of sight, out of {his} mind.

BUT I saw this lovely homemade art carousel at See Jamie Blog and decided that it would be great to have on our table {thanks Kris for highlighting in in the Homeschool Showcase!!}. Although we don’t have an Ikea nearby, I jumped in the car as soon as I could and headed to Target to check out their dollar section to try to re-create my own version.

I was able to find a lazy Susan {$8 in the housewares section} and six tin pails {$1/ea from the dollar section} and hot glue some magnets on to help keep the tins in place {i.e. so they don’t go flying off when the kids spin the thing like crazy}. Jamie gives a little more detail on how she put it together, but it’s super easy to do ~ enough that you might just want to make one of your own!

The result? A HUGE success with all of our kids, especially Kaleb. He has been a drawing fiend this week, dropping pictures into my lap and describing them to me in vivid detail ~ volcanoes with hot lava coming out, rainforests…it’s been amazing to hear him talk about things that I didn’t even realize he KNEW about. :)

Otherwise, our week has been full of reading, working on our new ‘chore charts’ {I’ll be sharing those soon}, swimming, reading and … reading a lot more. Here are some of our current favorite books ~ I’m in LOVE with this series of Usborne books!!

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

 

 

Artistic Pursuits

Simple crafts and ready-to-go/print ideas have essentially been our "art time" over the last few years. My extent of art knowledge and styles is minimal (at best). I might be able to identify some very famous paintings, but definitely not specific styles or the masters of art history.

ARTistic Pursuits has a complete K-12 art curriculum written for homeschoolers by homeschoolers. They provide art instruction in areas such as visual art, art history, modern art, the elements of art, and color and composition. Their curriculum books show student examples of the projects along with detailed lesson plans for the projects. Each book is also non-consumable, so it can be used over and over in the years to come with each child in your family!

We received ARTistic Pursuits, Grade K-3, Book Two, Stories of Artists and Their Art ($42.95) to review and seeing it person has made such a difference! I had heard of ARTistic Pursuits before but never looked into it further - and I wish I had. I love it! The Ellis' have put an amazing amount of time, research, and effort into developing a comprehensive and quality curriculum for homeschoolers.

Some of the features of ARTistic Pursuits, Grade K-3, Book 2, Stories of Artists and Their Art:

• geared to the student - there is no teacher preparation needed (other than gathering materials)
• organized and easy to understand
• colorful and engaging for kids
  
• contains biographies and works of art from 16 artists within the 13th to 18th centuries
• provides 32 projects in the areas of painting, drawing, printmaking, modeling/carving, and mixed media
  

A quick look inside some of the pages from Book Two:

Because we've been studying castles and knights, the first few lessons in this book were great for us to use. We read about Giovanni Cimabue (1240-1302) and did several projects including a watercolor painting and also "gold leaf". Both used easy to find supplies and the girls were able to follow the project directions without any assistance from me.

I've read through the artist biographies and learned a lot myself! ARTistic Pursuits, Grade K-3, Book 2, Stories of Artists and Their Art features various works of art and draws the students attention to details in the paintings then explains the importance of what the art portrays for that artist or time in history. Art history periods taught include Gothic, Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque, Rococo, Romantic, and Realist.

The book also contains a materials list for the art supplies needed for the various projects, grouped together for easy reference, so you know what is needed for each "class time". Supplies are available in discounted bundles through another website or can be purchased at your local craft store. Purchasing the art supplies is the only prep you need to do for the lessons - it really is that simple!

ARTistic Pursuits has taken a subject that can be very intimidating for parents (and often overlooked as a result) and made it incredibly easy to teach by providing an excellent curriculum for homeschooling families.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read reviews on different levels
of this product and other products available from Artistic Pursuits.

Core Learning and Crayola Art Studio

If your kids love the computer as much as mine do (begging would be an appropriate word to insert here) and they happen to be a little crazy about art, then you might want to look into purchasing Core Learning's new Crayola Art Studio ($24.95). It was just released in November and is a wonderful program for kids to create their own works of art. The program is based on the beginner levels of the corefx digital art software.

My overall impression of this product that it is AMAZING (and fun to boot)! Once I installed it on our computer, I had very little to do to show the girls how to use it. There is a quick video tour and the girls (ages 6 & 7) and even Zachary (with the girl's help) are having far too much fun using it. You can download a free trial of the software to try out for yourself, but here are few of the features of the program:

• realistic art tools to use - crayons, markers, paint, watercolors, chalk, oils...all available in a variety of colors and strokes.
• color palettes that allow you to mix your own colors or choose from a pre-set range of colors
• undo and mirror image features (rather handy for the kids!)
• hundreds of art images that can be edited and manipulated while kids are learning how to edit pictures
• ability to import your own pictures to edit and have fun with
  

If you have older children, the Corefx program ($59.95) allows you to do even more with graphics and drawing and even animation. Corefx includes many more graphics and art mediums and also has three skill levels.

In addition to art, Core Learning also offers programs for math, health, language, and critical thinking. We've been using the Health for Kids Series ($29.95) and our girls are having a lot of fun exploring the insides of the human body. The program makes it extremely fun for kids to learn about different parts of the human body through animation: the tongue, larynx, airways, mouth, epiglottis and more.

Core Learning also has a special page that lists current promotions available. Be sure to check out the Homeschool Crew blog for more on Core Learning!

Christian Art Curriculum: Spears Art

Despite the fact that I am crafty (of sorts), being consistent with art in our school-time is not one of my strong points. I might incorporate an "art activity" that goes along with the topic we are currently studying, but it is not focused on any specific art techniques or components. It's just doing a project for the sake of doing a project.

I was THRILLED to receive a full K-8th Christian Art Curriculum from Spears Art Studio to review. Over the last month and a half I have been using it with both my second and first grader and love the techniques that it is teaching as well as how simple it is to integrate into our school day. My girls are really enjoying it too and look forward to the lessons each week.

The curriculum, created by Diane Spears, is based on a theme for each week of the school year and includes one or more activities for each grade level based on the theme, and addresses various art elements, art principles, and design elements. It also incorporates the various seasonal elements (fall, Thanskgiving, Christmas, etc...). The curriculum is in PDF format ($39.95) and includes:

• Scripture integration
• full color illustrations
• complete lesson plans for each school year week - plans include objectives, Scripture references, art history ideas, vocabulary, teacher prep and motivation, lesson focus, materials needed, directions for the activity and evaluation tools
• 269 art activities
• 137 patterns and posters
• 498 instructional pages
• evaluation tools for student's art projects

The lessons are divided months/weeks of the year and also by grade level, making it quick and easy to find the grade level that you need. Teaching multiple children at the same time isn't difficult to do and it is possible to use the curriculum year after year without repeating projects since they change based on the grade level your child is in. It is also versatile enough to be used in your own studies or in a group setting such as a homeschool co-op.

The Spears Art Studio website has sample lessons available along with more in-depth information about the curriculum. Overall, this curriculum is an amazing deal when you consider that it covers from K-8 for $40 (this includes shipping!) - that's a little less than $5 a year for an amazing art curriculum. I willcontinue to use this curriculum in the upcoming years with my children and am very thankful that it is one that provides a Christ-centered view toward art education.

About the creator:

Diane Shields, the creator of Spears Art has a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and a Doctorate in Christian art/education. She has taught in both the public and private systems.

If you would like to read other reviews of the Spears Art Curriuculum you can visit the Homeschool Crew blog.

Drawing Class

Friday, the weather hadn't warmed up quite enough yet to go out in shorts (like the kids wanted to) so I had them sit down in front of the patio door, gave them pencils and paper, and asked them to draw me something that they saw outside.

Laurianna drew a great picture of one of my plant stands and pots on the deck.

McKenna drew a little of everything: the table, the umbrella, a chair, the truck across the street, a house...because variety is the spice of life!

Zachary drew the table (and this is verbatim): "This is to the left, and this is to the right...(and then I asked what this large oval shape on the paper was)..."and that's the whale. He got lost in our backyard."

Who could have known? I completely missed seeing that hanging around the backyard.